The Bulls and Hawks have been destined to face each other since Jan. 15. That’s when these teams first fell into the 9/10 spots in the East.
Amazingly, neither team has shifted in position since then.
One of the Bulls and Hawks will be eliminated on April 17 in what I am dubbing the Trae-In game. Why? This will be Trae Young’s third consecutive appearance in the Play-In Tournament. The three-time All-Star is 3-0 in the Play-In Tournament, winning two games in 2022 to earn the No. 8 seed and one game in 2023 for the No. 7 seed.
The season series between the two sides was close: Chicago won 2-1 but outscored Atlanta by only three points total.
Here’s everything you need to know about this must-win game.
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Bulls vs. Hawks prediction
The Hawks have not been a good road team this season. The Bulls don’t have a great home-court advantage, though, going 20-21 in the United Center.
Missing Jalen Johnson is going to hurt the Hawks a lot. He’s been a candidate for Most Improved Player. (Chicago’s Coby White should win the award). Johnson’s versatility unlocks a lot of the unique things that Atlanta does on offense.
The Bulls will also likely extend the minutes of their secret weapon, Alex Caruso. They are a completely different team when he’s on the floor but can only throw him out there for under 29 minutes per game during the regular season because of the punishment he puts his body through.
The Bulls are the slightly healthier team and can scale up for this game. These teams are even on paper, but I’ll give the edge to the Bulls.
Bulls vs. Hawks odds
The Bulls open as 3.5-point favorites against the Hawks per BetMGM.
| Team | Spread | Total | Moneyline |
| Bulls | -3.5 | O 218.5 (-110) | -160 |
| Hawks | +3.5 | U 218.5 (-110) | +130 |
Bulls vs. Hawks injury report
Injury reports have not yet been released, but both teams are missing key rotation players.
The Bulls have played without Zach LaVine, Patrick Williams and Lonzo Ball for most of the season.
The Hawks will be missing Saddiq Bey, Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu.
Bulls vs. Hawks TV channel
- TV channel: TNT or ESPN
- Live streaming: Sling
The broadcast schedule for the Play-In Tournament hasn’t been released yet, but all six games will be televised on TNT and ESPN.
Viewers can also live stream Play-In Tournament games with Sling.
Sling is the home for avid sports fans offering a range of sports channels so you can always cheer for your favorite teams with channels like ESPN, TBS, TNT, NFL Network, FS1 and more.
Bulls vs. Hawks key matchups and strategies
How do the Hawks slow down DeMar DeRozan?
DeRozan is the Bulls’ best player and their do-everything engine on offense. He has not gotten nearly enough praise for leading the league in minutes at the age of 34 and averaging 23.9 points per game on good efficiency. He remains one of the best isolation players in the game.
The Hawks would traditionally use Bey as their DeRozan stopper. Since he’s out, De’Andre Hunter will get the primary assignment. Wesley Matthews has also done a terrific job on DeRozan over the years, but the veteran 3-and-D specialist hasn’t been a big part of Atlanta’s rotation this season.
The Hawks’ strategy in guarding the DeRozan pick-and-roll in the regular season was to drop Clint Capela, taking away DeRozan’s ability to drive to the rim. They essentially ignored Nikola Vucevic on pick-and-pops, instead having their centers key in on containing DeRozan. He was still good enough to beat those matchups.
Atlanta did mix up its coverages a bit. It used a more aggressive hard show with backup center Bruno Fernando and chose to send two defenders at DeRozan on blitzes late in games to get the ball out of his hands.
DeRozan still torched the Hawks despite the extra attention, averaging 28.3 points per game on 49.1 percent shooting from the field. The Hawks fell for his pump fake and other tricks frequently — he attempted 30 free throws in those three games.
The Hawks are going to have to stay down on DeRozan’s pump fake first and foremost. Their strategy of ignoring Vucevic is a good one given that he has been one of the least efficient scorers in the league this year.
Most importantly, the Hawks need to do their work early. Once DeRozan gets to his spots, the battle has been lost. Matthews was elite at forcing DeRozan to pick up the ball farther out than he likes when the Bulls faced the Bucks in the 2022 NBA Playoffs. That needs to happen again.
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How do the Bulls slow down Trae Young?
The Bulls have done a pretty good job on Young this year, holding him to 20.0 points per game on a ghastly 29.0 percent shooting from the field and 22.7 percent from 3.
That’s not new for him — Young has shot under 40 percent in the previous two seasons against this Bulls core. Ayo Dosunmu and Caruso have both been excellent in harassing him with pressure.
While Young hasn’t been much of a scoring threat against the Bulls this season, he has been a great facilitator, averaging 13.5 assists.
The Bulls have contained Young’s scoring by bringing their centers up to touch against him, keeping them high up the floor at the level of the screen. That has taken away his pull-up shooting and given the guards an extra beat to recover over screens. That comes at the cost of giving his teammates advantages to work with.
Hawks secret weapon: The single-side tag
The above example is one of many single-side tag situations that the Hawks used to punish the Bulls. It is a very difficult set to defend against, putting players like White above in the impossible position of either leaving a roller open for a layup or a shooter open for 3.
Ironically, the Bulls have successfully used this same set against the Hawks.
Watch the short video below to get a full understanding of what a single side tag is and why it is so effective.
The Hawks really leaned into this setup in their last two games. Here are a few examples from the season series:
There’s no easy or good way to stop these plays. That’s why they are common at pretty much every level of basketball. The Bulls’ defense is particularly susceptible to it because they like to play their centers up to touch. For that to work, the defensive rotations have to be extremely on point. That hasn’t happened.
There will be a lot of these plays in this game. Any time you see one of the Hawks’ bigs rolling for an open lob dunk, it will likely come off a single-side tag situation.
Bulls secret weapon: Andre Drummond
The Bulls have wrecked the Hawks on the glass, averaging 11.7 offensive rebounds in the series. (For context, Atlanta’s 12.6 offensive boards per game ranked behind only New York for most in the league this year). Behind that is Andre Drummond, who pulled down an absurd 7.0 (!!!) offensive rebounds per game against the Hawks in only 25 minutes of play. Elite centers will get three per game. Seven is unheard of.
Drummond is working his way back from a nasty ankle sprain. His status is unknown as of now.
I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention Dosunmu as a Hawks killer. He averaged 21.0 points per game on 55.6 percent shooting from the field and 50.0 percent from 3. He is also working back from a quad strain that has kept him out of the past few games.
Dosunmu has been willing to let it fly from deep, and he’s been way too fast for Young and Bogdan Bogdanovic, both of whom are terrible point-of-attack defenders. Preventing him from leaking out in transition will be on the Hawks’ scouting report.
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How the Bulls beat the Hawks
The Bulls are a confusing team to watch. They are capable of beating the best and losing to the worst.
White has been in a mini-slump. The Bulls will need a big performance from him because the Hawks are going to be keyed in on stopping DeRozan. That means showing him extra bodies and forcing other players like White to beat them. Likewise, their role players will have to nail open 3s. They will be available.
The Bulls have to control the ball at the level of the screen. When they don’t direct the ball and make ball handlers feel some sort of pressure, they get carved up. Dosunmu and Caruso need to stay out of foul trouble and play a lot.
If this game does get tight, then the Bulls have one of the favorites to win the Clutch Player of the Year award in DeRozan. They’ll give it to him and let him carry them home on every closing possession.
How the Hawks beat the Bulls
This Bulls defense is very vulnerable to the things that the Hawks are great at. They will give up 3s — they allow the most in the league. The Hawks take the sixth-most in the league. You see where this is going.
It seems overly simplistic to say that if the Hawks shoot well from 3, they will win the game. But that’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to get a lot of them up. They will have good looks if they can keep on putting the Bulls’ defense in the blender as they have throughout a lot of these games with continual drives.
The one Hawks victory came in a game without Young where they made 12 more 3s than Chicago. The Bulls are 26th in 3-point attempts, so they’re working from a big math advantage in this matchup.
If the Hawks can hit their open 3s, they should take this one.
